The friends also helped by knocking on doors and searched the streets in a bid to find him - and thankfully a dishevelled looking Bob returned after a frantic nine days.

Heléna knows exactly how Samantha, who plays Bernice Blackstock on the ITV soap, felt during those awful days without her furry companion - in 2016 her beloved cat Gizmo went missing after she let her out to play.

Bob's lost cat poster

But unlike Bob, Gizmo was killed in a car accident on July 17, 2016 - and after being discovered, rather than being scanned for a microchip, which offers owner information, Heléna says she was ‘disposed of like a piece of trash’.

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When she found out the heartbreaking news that she would never see her beloved cat again, this kickstarted her determination to change the law relating to microchip scanning.

“When Samantha asked if we could help find her cat, we did everything we could to help,” said Heléna. “I’ve been in her position myself - it’s awful not knowing where your pet is.

Gizmo

“My Gizmo was involved in a traffic accident and she was disposed of in such a horrific way - her body was burnt so I had no way of getting her back to bury her. I had no closure.

“What upset me the most was that she wasn’t scanned for her microchip, which would have given the person who found her all my information.”

Heléna and her colleagues have since dedicated their time to finding lost cats such as Samantha’s and scanning any dead ones they find with their portable device on the roadside so they can be returned to their owners.

Heléna and her cat Gizmo as a kitten

More importantly, they are also campaigning for a law change to force all councils do this - and while Gizmo was not picked up by a local authority, Helena claims that some councils throw dead animals into landfill rather than carry out their scanning responsibility.

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“Gizmo was my world, and I knew I couldn’t let this happen to anyone else,” said Heléna. “She was loving, affectionate - the best cat I could ever ask for. So I set up a Facebook group called Deceased Cats UK and Ireland so that pet owners across the UK could connect with each other.

“From the group we found out that dead cats across the country were being picked up by the council - thrown into refuge trucks and then into landfill. It was shocking to hear, and I was determined to change that.”

Helena and Wendy (centre and right) with their friend Valerie Peachey (left)

Heléna set up Gizmo’s Legacy, a petition that collected more than 107,000 signatures, entitled ‘New law that cats killed/injured by a vehicle are checked for a chip’ - meaning that it is on course to be debated in Parliament.

Heléna, who lives in Bury, is hoping that this will take place within the next couple of months - and says a big group of cat lovers from Greater Manchester plan to travel down to London to deliver the petition to Downing Street.

As part of their campaign, the proactive group - with the help of Samantha - have made headline news, including BBC, Granada Reports and North West Tonight - plus a spot on Channel 5’s Do The Right Thing with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford earlier this year.

“Going on the show was really important for the campaign because it gave it national coverage, and helped us hit our signatures target in the petition,” said Heléna.

Helena and Samantha on Channel 5's Do the Right Thing

“The fact that councils are not scanning cats is wrong. It takes seconds to do. People have their cats microchipped so that they can be reunited with them if something happens - what’s the point in responsible pet owners doing this if scans are not being carried out?”

Samantha Giles also joined Heléna on the couch to help publicise the petition, and now works alongside Helena, Angela, Wendy and the team as they try to change the law.

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Samantha said: “Bob went missing during the night and we were distraught as he’s got epilepsy and after a seizure can be very disorientated.

“He was missing for nine horrific days. Angela and Helena gave us so much advice on how to go about finding him and even did a poster for us which got posted on many missing pet Facebook sites.

“We scoured the streets late at night and early morning calling and carrying sardines and rattling cat treats."

Bob the cat

When Bob finally returned home, Samantha believed he had been shut in somewhere due to his emaciated frame.

She said: “We call Bob our special needs boy as he is not only epileptic but has a heart murmur too and he’s extremely loving and trusting which makes him so vulnerable.

“Of course we were elated when he returned home and he got very spoilt- his sister Maggie was not that thrilled to see him back though.

“Obviously I have supported the campaign as I’m a huge cat lover and I know what pain and worry you go through when a fur baby goes missing - you need closure you need to know what has happened to them/ and if they have been in a RTA it’s so important to be able to say goodbye.”

Manchester City Council has previously told the M.E.N. that they scan all cats but do not have the facilities to store dead animals, and dispute the claim that those picked up by the council are thrown into landfill.

A spokesperson said: "We would stress that under no circumstances are cats, nor any other domestic animal found by our road crews disposed of by landfill.

Samantha Giles and her cat Bob (Image: Samantha Giles)

“Manchester City Council does not have any plans to introduce its own storage facilities where animals can be returned to their owners.

"The regulations governing these facilities are tightly monitored and there is no guarantee should Manchester City Council apply to build one, those plans would be approved.”

In Heléna's hometown of Bury , the council told us in a freedom of information request that there were 42 deceased cats collected by Bury Council in 2018 and that every one was scanned for a microchip.

A list of how many deceased cats were returned to their owners is not maintained by the council.

When asked about how dead cats are disposed of, a spokesman said: "We routinely scan the carcasses of cats picked up with the aim of returning them to their owners, if they can be traced through microchip records.

"If no chip is found, the animal is delivered to the local waste transfer station for incineration ultimately."